Chapter 35: Chapter 35
After breakfast, Elizabeth and I were silently doing the dishes when Hannah came to call me, according to her, I had a guest. I dried my hands and went out wondering who my "guest"was. Could it be Xiao Ling? or Darren? I couldn't think of anyone, it was surprising that I've been here getting to 3 months now and the only people I could call friends were, Jade, Juliet, Hannah and her staff, Scott, maybe Max, Xiao Ling and Darren. I really needed to go out more and interact, my mind was still wandering around my possible "guest". When I got to the sitting room, I was baffled to see that my"guest" was none other than Claudia, Katie's mother. Even when I tried looking like a happy hostess, it was clear that I was really surprised to see her. "Hello Claudia... what a pleasant surprise," I said.
"thanks, sorry for barging in, I hope I'm not interrupting anything," she replied
"trust me if you had really barged in, you would have been on your way home. does that answer your question?" I asked, I was telling her that she didn't disrupt any important thing I was doing but what I said had a deeper meaning, if she had literally barged in, I wouldn't be playing hostess, instead I would have sent her away.
"Anyway, I came here to invite you for ladies brunch and spa. You see, we're 5 mothers and our children are friends, Juliet is a friend of my daughter and the others so I was thinking, since you are Jade's girlfriend and you're like a mother to Juliet, why don't you join us. We'd be 6 friendly mothers with children who are best friends, what do you say?" Claudia asked
"hmmm... sounds interesting but maybe some other day," I replied
"If you don't mind me asking, did you have any plans for today?" she asked
"not really, just teaching Juliet how to dance," I replied.
"oh, I heard of that, you are teaching her hip hop dance. Don't you think at this age it would be advisable for her to learn ballet? just like other children her age, and besides you never can tell where ballet could lead her to. She might become a great ballerina in future," Claudia said.
"Thanks for the opinion but she really loves hip hop dance and she is very good at it. Jade approves of it and so do I, that is what Juliet want, let it be." I told her.
"hmmmm... enough of that, so are you coming with us or not?"
"let me hear what Juliet has to say," I told her. "Hannah please call Juliet for me," in less than 5 minutes Juliet came running to the living room
"Mommy UK you called. Hello Mrs Claudia," she said
"pumpkin, Mrs Claudia is inviting us to have brunch with her and her friends, you'll see your friends there. What do you say, do we skip dance for today and join them?" I asked and she nodded furiously.
"then it's settled, I'll leave you guys to get ready, come over to my place and we'll join others," Claudia said.
"sure, we'll be there in an hour," I told her, we shook hands and she left.
"Alright honey, let's go get ready," I told Juliet
"UK, why not go get ready, I'll take care of Juliet," Hannah told me, I thanked her and went to my room. I was a bit nervous to meet other women, would they be friendly? Would they take one look at me and scrunch their faces? Are they the uptight, bossy, or high class kind of women? Most of all, are they racist or would they have issues with my age? These thoughts ran through my mind as I got ready.
Well... there's only one way to find out. I just hope they will love me the way I am.I wanted to dress in a very stylish way, if those women thought they were better than me, then they were greatly mistaken. They may be married and older than me but I wasn't going to let them look down on me. I took out my short Jean jumpsuit. The cloth was long sleeves but I folded the sleeves to my elbow and used the elbow button to fasten it.
To end my dependence on a make up artist to beautify my face, I had downloaded some makeup tutorial videos on YouTube, with the video and my recently bought make up kits, I did a nice job on my face, it wasn't perfect but it was good enough, after all I'm still learning.
I wore a pair of gorgeous white earrings, silver necklace and bracelet on both hands, paired them up with a silver sandals of about 3 to 4 inches heel. I was ready to roll.
"Juliet? Are you ready?" I called
"In a minute," she answered
I went outside and saw Max and 2 other bodyguards talking, when they saw me, they stood straight and bowed.
"Please don't act so formal," I told them. "That aside, Max, please could you take Juliet and I to Katie's house?" I asked.
"Of course, anything for you Miss Udofia, I'll go get the car right away." He said and left
"Juliet, come on we don't want to keep Katie and her mother waiting," I called
"Coming," she answered and opened the door, she looked so cute in her red and floral dress, the top part of the dress was a dark red color while the lower part had a floral and pleated pattern. She wore a cute black sandals with red bow at the straps, her hair was down with a colourful hair clip attached to the side. She completed the dressing with a cute little Chanel bag.
"Honey you look adorable," I complimented and she blushed.
Few minutes later we the car sped off to Katie's house, I rang the doorbell when we got there and Claudia came out to meet me. "UK… welcome, I was worried if you changed your mind, you said you'd be here in an hour," she said leading me into her house. Juliet ran inside immediately the door was open, shrieking happily and calling Katie's name.
"sorry about that, I completely lost track of time," I said.
"Katie, come over here, come see my mommy," Juliet said dragging Katie to where Claudia and I sat.
"UK, this is my daughter Katie, I'm not sure you've met her before. Katie, this is mommy's new friend, UK, she lives with Jade and Juliet," Claudia introduced us.
"Hello Katie, nice meeting you," I said smiling at her.
"Are you really Juliet's mother?" Katie asked me, I didn't know what to say, the question was sudden and I never expected it but I tried my best to answer it in a way that no one will feel uncomfortable.
"Not really," I replied
"what do you mean by that?" she asked scrunching her face
"you see Katie, I am like a mother to Juliet but I didn't give birth to her so I'm not really her mother," I replied
"ohhh, so if you marry Juliet's daddy, will you really be her mommy?" Katie asked again
"yes, I will be her mommy if Jade and I get married," I answered
"ok Katie, enough interrogation, you're not a cop. UK, let us go now. Wait outside for me while I go get my car ready," Claudia said and we went out.
"why don't you join us, it'll save you the stress to drive and besides, it'll save time," I told her and she agreed. Claudia sat at the passenger's seat while Katie, Juliet and I sat at the back.
Claudia directed Max the way to the place we were meeting others, it was a 5 star hotel, I was surprised that we were here. I was expecting a diner or something. We went to the pool side and met 4 women sitting under a big umbrella, one of them saw us and signalled us to join them. "hello..." they chorused, "hello" I greeted
Claudia and I took the 2 empty seats that were under the umbrella while Juliet and Katie joined the other group if children sitting under another umbrella nearby.
Claudia wasted no time introducing me to everyone, the first was Aimee, her daughter, Helen, sat in between 2 cute little boys. Helen had a curly auburn hair with freckles on her face.
The next person I was introduced to was Evelyn, she was the mother to the 2 cute boys, Ivor and Cyril, they were twins.
Tonia was the next person I was introduced to, she was 6 months pregnant, her daughter, Zoe, sat beside Ivor.
And the last person was a young Korean woman, Eun Kyung. Her daughter, Jin Ae sat between Zoe and Katie.
They all seemed nice and friendly, no racism, no domineering attitude, everyone seemed open and happy to be with me. I just pray it's not a farce, I was the youngest in the group but it didn't matter, everyone addressed me as UK, Juliet's mother. I had new friends, it felt good, and for that period of time, I didn't think about Jade and his problem.